Wrongful Death

Bronx, Brooklyn, Long Island, Queens, Manhattan, New York City, NY

 

New York Wrongful Death Case    

 

This is a case we successfully handled for the family of a woman who died as a result of medical malpractice after giving birth. The case involves a failure to treat vaginal bleeding by a New York hospital, which ultimately resulted in the New York wrongful death of a 37 year old mother of three.

 

The patient was admitted to the defendant New York hospital on September 21st for the delivery of her third child by defendant doctor #1.  The patient was in good health in her third uncomplicated pregnancy and had no medical history of chronic illness or disease.  Her life expectancy was approximately another 42 years and her work-life expectancy was approximately another 20 years, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics information.  She was the mother of a son and daughter both under the age of 10.

 

The patient delivered her third child at the defendant New York hospital.  Within an hour of delivery, the patient was rushed back to surgery for immediate life saving efforts to stop uncontrolled vaginal bleeding, with surgical efforts involving the performance of a total hysterectomy.  She was diagnosed with a condition or syndrome known as disseminated intravascular coagulation, which is a very complicated blood disorder that can appear literally out of nowhere, and is usually triggered by some traumatic event, (such as trauma or infection). The disorder involves thromboembolotic forces, as well as hemorrhaging, and what can be described as an almost total chaos of hemodynamic functioning. 

 

Despite the efforts of surgeons, anesthesiologists, hematologists, nephrologists and gynecologists, and attendants in the intensive care unit at the defendant New York hospital, the patient died approximately 36 hours later.   The cause of death was thought to be the diagnosed disseminated intravascular coagulation, which was universally fatal to any patient that suffered from it until approximately fifteen years ago. However, through thorough and meticulous analysis of the recordings of the medical record of the patient, it became apparent that the monitoring of her hemodynamic functioning, although addressed by all physicians involved, nevertheless departed from standards of good and accepted medical practice. 

 

Proper hemodynamic monitoring requires more than the insertion of a subclavian line and required, in fact, more precise and delicate management involving pulmonary wedge pressure.  The central point developed during the questioning of the defendants was that when the decision was made by defendant doctor #2 to stop the transfusion of blood products (there had been approximately 14,000 ccs of varying coagulation and other types of blood products transfused during the first 24 hours). When the decedent was admitted to the intensive care unit, defendant doctor #2 did not have enough medical surveillance to do that very task. 

 

In doing so, defendant doctor #2 delivered the patient that Saturday afternoon into the care and treatment of residents in the intensive care unit at the defendant New York hospital without the benefit of super precise hemodynamic monitoring. Following that, the patient continued to suffer internal bleeding that would go unrecognized until she went into shock that evening. 

 

As a result of the analysis of this New York wrongful death case, it is thought, although never confirmed, that the entire functioning of the intensive care unit at the defendant New York hospital has changed as a result of our claim on behalf of her Estate that the patients weren't receiving the proper level of supervision.  This claim involved a change in the protocol of the hospital which would, in addition to having attending physicians responsible for the care and treatment of a patient in the intensive care unit, will now for the future also require a specially designated emergency medicine physician as the attending physician responsible for the overall supervision and running of the intensive care unit.

 

As a result of the medical malpractice that occurred in the defendant New York hospital, the family of the decedent received a substantial multimillion dollar recovery.

 

If you or a loved one has had a difficult delivery and have questions about the quality of the medical care you received, please call the New York medical malpractice attorneys at Silberstein, Awad & Miklos for answers. Together we will continue our fight against FRIVOLOUS DEFENSES and DECEPTIVE DEFENSES.

 

 

 

Silberstein, Awad & Miklos, P.C.
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